FROM CALIFORNIA

To the Editors of the Tioga Eagle: 

GENTLEMEN:

----- "Enclosed I hand you a copy of a letter from L. Stowell, now one of the Representatives in the Legislature of California, and if you deem it of sufficient interest to publish, you have the privilege to do so.  T.P. Stowell. – Pueblo de San Jose, California, February 3d, 1850."

"When I left the mines, I bought myself a fine horse, that I might take a tour through the country, chiefly to see the timber, if any, &c. I left the Stanislaus river and proceeded south up the San Joaquin valley, and into the valley of San Jose, and from here across the mountains to Santa Cruz, which is the great lumber country here; the timber extending from 70 to 80 miles on the coast and of the best kind:  Redwood, (which takes the place of white pine,) and fir, (which is much like our Norway,) with some scattering oak."

"I thought Pennsylvania and New York grew some good sized trees, but the largest are saplings to some of the Red Wood of California, which you must acknowledge when I tell you we have them here twenty feet in diameter, and 275 feet high! – and from six to twelve feet diameter is a common size. This may look like a good sized story too, but I assure you it is nevertheless true, though I always doubted it till I saw it – Mr. Fremont to the contrary, notwithstanding. I saw the large tree that Fremont speaks of his having measured, in his travels through that part of the country."

John Charles Frémont, 1861 - Library of Congress image

For a couple of weeks in the Spring of 1846 John Charles Frémont, 2^nd Lieutenant of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, camped among the big trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Frémont was on a scientific expedition and his temporary camping place in the San Lorenzo Valley was in what is now known as Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Back in 1846 these redwoods were part of Rancho Zayante and Rancho Rincon, portions of which were owned by mountain man Isaac Graham.

Frémont was fascinated with the magnificent redwoods. At Graham’s prompting, Frémont began measuring some of the big trees, including the one Graham considered his tallest. Today this towering redwood is known simply as the Giant.

The explorer’s expedition journal entries about the redwoods captured the imagination of the American people and in the years to follow, inspired thousands of them to visit the big trees for themselves.  

In my book, Historic Tales of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park – Big Trees Grove, read how these immense coast redwoods described by Frémont became the resort Big Trees Grove, the first grove of coast redwoods preserved for public recreation.

Source: Tioga Eagle [Willsborough, Pennsylvania], May 1, 1850.